How to Write a Blog Post People Actually Want to Read

Creating a perfect blog post is so much more than slapping a few hundred words on a document and uploading it to your website.

There’s a craft to writing blog posts that are engaging and fun but also in a way that’ll bring you more traffic.

If you want to create a blog post that drives traffic and gets people sharing with others, there’s a kind of formula you have to follow.

But what makes a blog post better than others?

Which ingredients are necessary to not only keep people interested and sharing but also get your post to rank highest on search engines?

Here’s what you need to craft a perfect blog post:

A catchy title and subheaders

Interesting, relevant images

Search engine optimization

Helpful, factual information

Lots of personality

Writing a great blog post isn’t as easy as just that. First you have to hone these skills and put them to use in the right way. If you want to increase traffic and engagement, this is what you’ll want to do.

1. Choose a unique idea and a killer title

I bet you have tons of great ideas for blog posts. Lots of people have great ideas and that means people probably have very similar ideas to yours.

The issue with this is that people don’t want to read the same blog post over and over again when they’re looking for specific information. They want exactly that – specifics.

Which means you have to think up a topic and create a unique spin on a broader idea.

For example: if you want to write about how to moisturize your hair, you can’t just choose the topic, “how to moisturize your hair.” It’s way too broad of an idea and people will gloss right over it. Plus, there are tons of blog posts covering the exact same thing.

You want to show people that your blog has something new and fresh to offer.

To do this, you have to narrow the general idea into something more specific like, “how to moisturize your hair with 5 natural items from your kitchen.” With this idea, you’ve just created a unique title and a fresh angle on a much bigger idea.

And this way, you’ll also get the right readers to gravitate toward your blog by giving them the direct information they’re looking for while showing them your blog niche.

2. Use headings and white space

People want to be able to find what they’re looking for easily. When you present them with a huge block of text and nothing to separate any of your ideas, they’ll leave.

Many of us get intimidated by large amounts of text. Not because we can’t read it, but because we don’t want to take the time to read through it when we can easily find the information in a few seconds on a different site.

If you want someone to stay on your website long enough to actually benefit, they’ll need to be able to find the information they want quickly.

Breaking up your big blocks of text and labeling them with obvious — yet helpful — titles is a great way to capture attention.You can also add to this by throwing in bolded phrases and making the font bigger with the main ideas you want people to take away from your blog post.

3. Write with personality

People don’t want to read something that sounds like a computer generated it. It’s boring and makes them think there isn’t a real person behind the content they’re reading.

So if you really want people to relate to what you’re saying and actually enjoy reading your blog, you need to throw in some of your personality. You need to have a voice.

That may sound easy enough but if you’re not used to writing how you speak, it could be a struggle. Here’s how you can make sure you’re breathing life into your blog post:

Read it out loud and fix choppy sentences

Add in phrases you actually say a lot

Throw in some jokes

Tell a story related to the topic (this also adds credibility!)

All of these can help you find issues and ensure you’re putting the real you into the words instead of robotically typing them.

Another way to make your blog post more personable is to change the font style. You talk with certain inflections on different words. In order to show that and have people actually read the content the way it sounds in your head, use italics or make important sentences bold.

4. Add relevant images

People are visual creatures. We love connecting ideas with images. Which means you should be adding photos into your content if you want to have the perfect blog post.

Blog posts with photos get than those without them.

Now, this doesn’t give you permission to litter your content with random photos. They need to make sense and add to the content you’re writing. They should be offering something extra that words alone can’t.

But you can’t just choose any photo you can get your hands on.

The actual photos you use also play a huge role in reader engagement and can result in a positive or negative outcome depending on the quality of the image.

How many times have you been on a website only to click the “back” button when you see they have super low quality photos? If you’re like the rest of us, probably a lot.

Not having great photos shows people that the rest of your website may not be high quality, either. Thankfully, there are a ton of places you can find high quality photos in your niche for free.

You just have to know where to look.

5. Optimize your blog post for search engines

Still not getting the traffic you want?

Search engine optimization (or SEO) is crucial for getting your blog post to rank higher when people type in your keyword on Google.

The most important part of great SEO is the keyword. You need to find a word or phrase that readers are actively searching for on Google. Once you have that, you need to put it to use in all the right places.

If you’re like me and you don’t want to worry about making sure you have the right number of keywords throughout your content, using a free plugin like Yoast can help you manage all of your SEO information in one place.

There may be a lot of reasons you’d want to grow your blog. Whether it’s to increase your income or simply to have your voice be heard by a wider audience, the process is very much the same.

Knowing how to create the perfect blog post is essential for allowing others to find your blog in the black hole that is the internet and share your amazing content with others. Those two ingredients are what you need to build a successful blog and the above steps will help get you there.

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Good advice and reminders of solid principles. I usually work for editors who take care of the images on their end: when I’m blogging for myself, I need to make more of an effort with the visual content.

Hi Bella,
Nice and crisp post. As I am to start a new blog soon your post was specially useful for me. I wasn’t taking care of many SEO principles in my recent writings for the web but you reminded back everything.
Thanks a lot.

Hi Chandi! Yes, SEO can be difficult to understand at first. Whenever I write blog posts, I keep a little checklist handy to make sure I’ve covered everything I should be for that post. Maybe that could help you keep track of it all, too! Best of luck blogging 🙂 I’m so glad I could be of help to you!

Hi Sandy! That’s a great question. Personally, I don’t follow a sizing guideline for images I post in my blog posts. I just make sure the images are big enough to read/see clearly but not so big that they distract from the content itself.

A great size for any images you’d like to be Pinnable (to Pinterest) is 600 pixels wide by 900 pixels long. This is usually a great size that isn’t so overbearing it won’t load properly.

If you’re having issues with your images loading, just try downsizing them (in Photoshop or free websites like PicMonkey). That should help with the loading error if they’re a ridiculous size.

Unfortunately, there are crappy people out there who will try to steal your work no matter what you do. You can copyright your website/work and, if you still find someone who has copied your work, you can confront them about it first. Most people will take down the plagiarized work after getting caught. If they don’t, you can file a copyright claim against them.

Thanks for going over this topic! I want to start a blog, so I’ve been doing lots of research to help me feel better prepared and to help my blog be more successful. However, I couldn’t find much on how to actually write the blog post. Thanks for the much-needed advice!

This is absolutely fantastic!!!! I stumbled across this article just from typing in writing podcasts, I feel I am doing so much better with my blog since I moved cities, and my most top post was “How to be like ‘Kate’ in a ‘Kardashian’ world. I want my blog to be about striving for elegance in a mixed up world, and all about sophistication, and etiquette. I feel inspired to do an etiquette one again, but maybe more in depth. It is just the title I need to really work on!!!! Thankyou for such an amazing article full of inspiration. The title GRABBED me!!!!!!

A very nice article with so much of information!
All the information mentioned here is very useful and helpful for blogger like me. It will certainly help me organize the content in systematic order and make it presentable.

One more thing, color scheme of your blog is very soothing to eyes. Loved it!